arch 5, 1900.

At half-past twelve on the 23rd General Hart ordered his brigade to
advance. The battalions, which were sheltering among stone walls and
other hastily constructed cover on the reverse slope of the kopje
immediately in front of that on which we stood, rose up one by one and
formed in rank. They then moved off in single file along the railroad,
the Inniskilling Fusiliers leading, the Connaught Rangers, Dublin
Fusiliers, and the Imperial Light Infantry following in succession. At
the same time the Durham Light Infantry and the 2nd Rifle Brigade began
to march to take the place of the assaulting brigade on the advanced
kopje. Wishing to have a nearer view of the attack, I descended the
wooded hill, cantered along the railway--down which the procession of
laden stretchers, now hardly interrupted for three days, was still
moving--and, dismounting, climbed the rocky sides of the advanced kopje.
On the top, in a little half-circle of stones, I found General
Lyttelton, who received me kindly, and together we watched the
development of the operation. Nearly a mile of the railway line was
visible, and along it the stream of Infantry flowed steadily. The
telescope showed the soldiers walking quite slowly, with their rifles at
the slope. Thus far, at least, they were not under fire. The low kopjes
which were held by the other brigades shielded the movement. A mile away
the river and railway turned sharply to the right; the river plunged
into a steep gorge, and the railway was lost in a cutting. There was
certainly plenty of cover; but just before the cutting was reached the
iron bridge across the Onderbrook Spruit had to be crossed, and this was
evidently commanded by the enemy's riflemen. Beyond the railway and the
moving trickle of men the brown dark face of Inniskilling Hill, crowned
with sangars and entrenchments, rose up gloomy and, as yet, silent.

The patter of musketry along the left of the army, which reached back
from the advanced kopjes to Colenso village, the boom of the heavy guns
across the river, and the ceaseless thudding of the Field Artillery
making a leisurely preparation, were an almost unnoticed accompaniment
to the scene. Before us the Infantry were moving steadily nearer to the
hill and the open ground by the railway bridge, and we listened amid the
comparatively peaceful din for the impending fire storm.

The head of the column reached the exposed ground, and the soldiers
began to walk across